well i'm john marburger washington d.c. and here is what's coming up tonight on the big picture. corporations have destroyed our democracy with both republicans and democrats listening to the money and not to leave the people i don't we retake control of our government and restore our founding fathers vision for america former governor of minnesota jesse ventura is here to tell us all also just days after giving his controversy remarks on the tragedy in libya mitt romney continues to come under fire from members of his own party and a man that clearly has no foreign policy foreign policy experience really become

prez the united states that and more into his daily take and anti-american anti western violence continues to spread through the muslim world as u.s. embassies in lebanon to nature come under assault today is all of the violence really a result of an anti islamic film or is there a bigger picture of all of this unrest i'll explain in tonight's daily take. ever says the citizens united decision the american democracy has been systematically destroyed by the constant flow of corporate cash into politics billionaires like the koch brothers and shelly ableson with his money from from chinese casinos off macau have done their very best to buy off elections across the country while corporate lobbyists try their hardest to win over politicians on capitol hill and while we all know about the republicans affection for corporate cash democrats too are backed by a flurry of corporate donors bottom line is that today corporate power has bought out the electoral and legislative process is that america leaving you and me

generally speaking without a voice so what can be done to give a voice back to the american people and restore the democracy that our founding fathers intended joining me now is governor jesse ventura former governor of minnesota and author of the new book demo crips and re blood of the clintons re blood lincoln's no more gangs in government government governor ventura joins me now from our new york studio governor ventura welcome. hi tom nice to be with you great to have you with us i and my sander right re blood guns well you've got a volatile sounded out read blood like a yeah that's great that's great how much damage do you think that corporations are doing to america now as a consequence of citizens you know i will tell you this if this continues america will be destroyed because the definition of fascism is when corporations take over the government they're doing it boatloads of money they don't even have to declare where the money comes from there's no open disclosure tom think of this another country could form

a corporation and could pump millions and billions of dollars into our election and another country now could actually influence and have the president of their choice not ours what actually might be happening right now the chamber of u.s. chamber of commerce has many members that are transnational corporations that are pumping in there that are basically laundering tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars through the chamber for advertising that's basically largely directed to support republicans and trash democrats. absolutely and it's prophetic i mean but we have it in our power to stop it the be answers as clear as the nose on your face but it'll be as difficult as climbing mount everest and it's this stop voting for democrats or republicans vote for anybody else i'm voting for governor gary johnson the libertarian candidate for president i refuse to play this folly and i urge all americans you want to take the country back then stop voting for coke and pepsi

because that's the only option we're given right now wouldn't it be more effective to work for a new zealand australia both used to have our first past the poll winner take all system that creates a two party system and they feel they've got to they did away with that by bringing in instant runoff voting ranks voting they call you know where you can vote for choice second choice third choice sure intil we have you know in the green party's got in that in the more than three hundred communities across america san francisco is the largest where you've got multiple parties now in till we get there isn't the danger aren't you basically voting for george for mitt romney this year. no absolutely not i'm not doing that in any way shape or form i will continue i've never voted i voted for john anderson back in nineteen eighty i've never voted for a democrat or republican i despise both parties equally they've both been bought off by bribery. they will never get my vote at all ok so.

i'm assuming instant runoff so ok but why do we only have two people allowed in debates you know in the private sector they tell you competition is good but apparently in the public sector it's not good because both gangs the gangs pick your president they pick one from each side you're made to pick pick the lesser of two evils i guess and in the words of the late great jerry garcia of the grateful dead if you're made to pick the lesser of two evils that means you're still picking evil yeah it's true and it's it's a real problem within our political system how did you get to be governor of minnesota without playing republican or democrat well first of all i only raised three hundred thousand to become governor i bet i'm the only elected official in fifty years that actually made more money doing the job than i spent to get it i'll tell you how i got it i was allowed to debate in minnesota we have four or five

major parties because the threshold is only five percent if you've had a candidate statewide get five percent of the vote that's considered major party i was allowed to debate at the primary i was polling only ten percent which nationally they require fifteen so i wouldn't have been allowed to debate i proved from the primary to seven weeks later i rose from ten percent and won the election because i was given the opportunity to debate why are they so scared because if they let somebody like me i'm there if i can debate them i can beat them well and you know parallel you did what are your thoughts on this notion of corporate personhood that corporations are people and that money is speech that iranian the u.s. supreme court are pushing it's horrid i mean you know corporations are people that's fascism. the loose definition of fascism is when corporates team up with orange

imagine religion to control the government. they're not people their bottom line and the fact that money is free speech while i'm waiting for the next bank robber when he gets arrested to claim his first amendment rights i was only go doing free speech when i took the money if it's a great one. or corporations being prosecuted for bigamy when they when they merge with other corporations you know more than one or something like yeah if they merge with more than one corporation yeah then you can prosecute him for bigamy because after all there are individuals now yeah there are persons if mitt romney is unlikely to believe that do you think that his mormon faith is going to influence how he governs i'll tell you what i think they had romney picked four years ago when obama went against mccain right after the election you know how i know that jury member when all those borman ads four years ago started coming on t.v. they started showing you a fireman a nurse and listed the people these are regular people nice people and member

they'd look at the camera in the end and they say and i'm a mormon see they've been preparing you for romney for four years they started the moment obama beat mccain they already had romney already picked for it that's a very interesting analysis i do remember those ads so a little and we were in a dated with them right so what are your thoughts on the mormon church. i don't know nothing about it tom i'm an atheist i look at all religions in my view they're evil because all religions cause wars look at the middle east right now what's it all over religion every war we've ever fought has been fought religion has played a role in it it's it's very true so you you would not argue that romney is a cult member or anything like that or only i you know to me you could call them all cults i'm an atheist i was so happy when barack obama did his did unarguable address the first time ever he went down the litany said christians mormon or

christians muslims jews and he got down the line in the last thing he said and nonbelievers i leapt out of my chair i looked at my wife and i said were legal now the president has actually stated that there are nonbelievers in the country yeah and that actually is a very big deal because a whole is search one of the last really discriminated against minorities and perhaps majorities and i don't know that anybody's done a really honest poll on this but i know i was overjoyed it's the first time a president has ever used those words he didn't use atheist but he did say nonbelievers and a variation at the defense of marriage act the opportunity for gays to get married you came out recently in opposition of the defense of marriage act in opposition to the the law that would prevent that the president absolutely silly up absolutely

it's discrimination at its worst what is the definition of discrimination taking one group of people who are associated and not giving them the same rights as the majority and the reason you shouldn't be allowed to vote on this you can't have a civil this is a civil rights issue you can't let a majority make a decision for a minority you need elected officials with courage to do the right. think if we allowed you to vote on every civil rights issue we'd still have slavery it's it it is a good an excellent point that the tyranny of the of the mob is just as dangerous as the tyranny of the of the of the tyrant i suppose i'm curious finally what was it like to russell russell hall kogan. i've never really wrestled in the night before i was supposed to wrestle him for the world title unfortunately i was stricken with pulmonary emboli i and i was in intensive care six days in a san diego hospital and i couldn't get back in the ring for another six months so

i really missed my go around with kogan and then of course i fell into the broadcasting end of it and after fifteen years i retired so i kept well these big powerful he was the greatest wrestler of all time as far as the money draw goes you know i give him kudos for that and the transition that you made from being a wrestler to a broadcaster to a governor how how did you translate that you said you know you got into the into the into the debates how did that happen what advice would you give to people who want to get into the political mill you in the united states well actually when i taught at harvard university one of my classes was how pro wrestling prepares you for politics and it does in pro wrestling murphy's law which applies anything that can go wrong in the match will so you have to be able to think quick on your feet while when you're running for office you may get a question you're not ready for so you have to be able to think quickly second

didn't pro-wrestling you sell yourself on the microphone and on t.v. you've got to convince those people to spend their hard earned money to come down and see me get my ass kicked well what is the difference between selling for that money or selling for a vote and finally and most importantly the character that you portray in wrestling may be nothing like who you really are as an individual and i think we've got a lot of elected people that fall right into that the character of a portray in front of the screen is nothing like they really are just in private lives played a role governor jeff jesse ventura thanks so much for joining us tonight tom thank you keep up the great work i love your show and keep it up because it's free speech like you that may save this. well thank you very much governor thank you for being with us. after the break as the violence and unrest escalates across the middle east conservatives in washington are calling for military action by the u.s.

government but is that really the best way to handle the situation well ask our panelists writes big picture rubble. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans call a donor. i'm sorry i missed the guy who cares an awful lot of. you sir are a fool you know what that is my terrorist cells in your neighborhood all want the usa to feature isn't the only liberal that chris jones can really go to but it's clear the corporate you need distract us from what you and i should care about because there are profit driven industry that sells the sensationalistic garbage because that breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break that.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

it's friday you ready to rumble join me for guides for tonight's big picture rubble our mark carroll libertarian commentator erick i can only democratic strategist and neil munro reporter for the daily caller thank you all for joining me tonight it is always unrest and protests against u.s. diplomatic buildings have now spread to more than a dozen nations in the middle east and north africa and while our nation tries to contain what could be a major foreign policy crisis the romney campaign continues to exploit it for political gain on a.b.c. this morning romney doubled down in his attack against the president. so no regrets well i indicated at the time and continue to do that what was said at that time was was not appropriate that they continue to have that they reiterated the statement after the bin breaching of the grounds and i think that was wrong romney's top

foreign policy adviser richard williamson told the washington post there's a pretty compelling story that if you had a president romney you'd be in a different situation for the first time since jimmy carter we've had an american ambassador assassinated as he went out of his way to get jimmy carter in there america's diplomatic community is calling romney out to t.p.m. quotes a foreign service officer saying this it's probably not a surprise but i can just say that if mitt romney wins in november he's going to have a very chilly reception from his employees every time he goes abroad i don't think i can quite state the rage we're all feeling toward him so what do you all think about what's going on in the middle east and how mr romney is handling that let me start with you neil president's policy towards the islamic world has collapsed because it turns out of the islamic parties. in fact islamic party is deeply opposed to american society of the west to modernity to democracy to free speech that's why we get this furious effort by the islamists competing with each other to be most anti american and most free speech why they're focusing they're using this

obscure video as a sort of a hate crime that they can all shriek at saying we're more anti american and to youtube than the other and the president weirdly enough is playing along with them by a green there over the video as bad the president should have adopted a clear policy which obama has north which clinton slightly has and romney slightly more which says that video is protected by the first amendment has nothing to do with american policies instead the president goes around defending criticizing the video and therefore bolstering the islamised claim that the americans are doing the aviation you are already bush did the same thing no one when he was president these this is these wiki leaks from the u.s. embassy in two thousand and six the u.s. embassy in copenhagen urging the u.s. ambassador urging the danish newspaper we're ewan's post and i've interviewed the guy who is the publisher. urging him not to reprint the cartoons to answer that are

you saying obama should take lessons from bush we've already seen plenty of mistakes from bush if so that's not one but in the public announcement the public announcement from the bush administration was these people can do make their cartoons its civil rights we may not like the republicans more than the democrats have been protective of free speech my uncle and i was actually working at the embassy in kabul on nine hundred seventy nine my family's apartment family i lived overseas an american embassy and i will say that this is not about politics this is not about making scoring points it was u.s. soil what is considered us soil was under attack and in that situation as a candidate you have no place and no right to make comments or to criticize the president he should follow suit with what our government is saying what they are gathering facts and while they are. side of what is best to do for our americans who are overseas everybody thank the troops a lot and the troops to turn to things for us so do our civil servants in the foreign service they are on the front lines and want to see is our other option our

other alternative to war they are also serving but their families their children and their safety is the most important thing politics not at all even registering on the radar is this not the first time in decades or maybe longer that a presidential candidate during you know has criticized. somebody while the troops are are american who were under fire oh absolutely ronald reagan and h.w. bush both released statements of support during the iran hostage situation and they certainly were not carter and they were running against while they were candidates they recognized that this was about leadership and that if they were going to be seeking the highest office in the land they needed to have a healthy respect for what that office entails and the responsibilities of that office so mark has mitt romney just come out and basically said i'm not ready to be president no i don't think he's necessarily said that i'm going to agree in part with with both of my fellow guest here to one degree you're always going to talk a little bit about undercutting or changing what the current administration is doing i mean if mitt romney's running it. was run against bush you're going to talk

about whether going to stay in the war whether going to recommit troops in general to that area the world so you're always going to talking to some degree about changing what the current administration's done if you're trying to get elected i think the mistake here i don't think there's anything wrong with governor romney talking about his general approach i do take issue with him for some of the same reasons you cannot second guess your commander in chief as a candidate you're still an american i don't agree with everything the president's doing here only greig's actually how he's doing it but i too have a close friend that i've recently been talking to about this in the way that our civilian people are in harm's way our civilian our military is a military they're little freaked out about these cartoons i do not i mean i'm sure you know the lockstep i would have done this this and this i think you can talk about your general approach to this and i think to some degree president obama is a vulnerable here to political sense because he did sort of say i'm going to unique position to handle this problem. when he got elected he came out and said i have some unique skill set that will let me handle this but i don't agree in any way with second guessing the commander in chief while people are still in harm's way and the fires are still there and i agree and i think this is a very delicate moment in time. neal shouldn't shouldn't president

obama be allowed to just handle this without criticism from governor rod trouble is he's handling it in such a way that he's inviting more and more of these attacks and may i also state also. complained up and although you know with complete obviousness that the obama's first appearance in national politics came in a challenge to president bush's attempt to roll back the jet by going after saddam hussein the president got his start in national politics doing precisely what you are complaining about secondly the president's policy in the middle east has involved us is criticizing bush for. going out on the response of people people criticize george bush right after the nine eleven attacks in two thousand and one they did not know i mean like this i mean while we still don't know maher did you get thrown off television i mean is it that they don't care you know he used a wrong word appeared to compliment i don't agree is wrong because appeared to compliment the jihadi who murdered three thousand of us already so i think we're in

for a problem is that this was not a moment of politics this was a moment of leadership and an absolutely where he was acting and the role commander in chief and like it or not he won the election in two thousand and eight and so that is his prerogative to make those statements and that is our duty as american citizens and the segment around me as one to give our president the leeway to make those tough decisions while we are under attack but his office isn't you know or no big deal isn't it a statement of american values to say we as a people not by law but we as a people disapprove of anybody disparaging somebody else that's recently true do you have any idea why do you know you can say if but to but the president on multiple occasions has not said there here's the first amendment here's my view. he has on most occasions said this is a bad idea we are not like this we americans do not do it we are not like that no best not that's not america we're going to says about free speech you terry terry jones does not represent america ferrera fine but you seem to forget that america

begins when the mayflower guys come you're for religious freedom and they argue about right and wrong this is america all right let's move out of there stop here despite studies of romney's tax plan the show is going to raise taxes on the middle class middle income americans their anyone on a.b.c. this morning to reiterate that he will not raise taxes on middle income americans and the question is what does mitt romney think are middle income americans. the fundamentals of my tax policy are these number one reduce tax burdens on middle income people so no one can say my plan is going to raise taxes of income people because principle number one is the burden down a middle income tax hundred thousand dollars middle income or no middle income is two hundred twenty three thousand dollars unless there's a romney says middle income is two hundred to two hundred fifty thousand dollars or was according to census bureau the median household income in the united states this is a household is fifty thousand dollars median individual income is twenty five thousand five hundred so is romney just out of touch you know i'm going to speak up

for the english language here i would use the phrase or less which means or less and therefore two hundred fifty thousand or less what you doubt if you want to be found then is you know far out away from middle if you like the top two percent is that it has that ninety eight percent now the president did not say that he said the present is the one that's at two hundred fifty thousand or less that the bush tax cuts will not be rolled back but that mitt romney to say that middle income americans when he was given the option to even thought out something lower like one hundred thousand say no no no let me correct that number and give you one that's actually five times the median income family do you think that mitt romney actually you know i mean he was born a multimillionaire he's been a multimillionaire his entire life he's been surrounded by multimillionaires he went to private props schools he's he's really never lived. outside that bubble that multimillionaire bubble these possibility actually believes the median income in the united states is it is a quarter million dollars a year i think it's possible that he believes and i think one of this is this plays into one of his biggest biggest weaknesses as

a candidate you know should be loved to be respected to be feared be real be truthful just be a rich guy and run for president there's nothing wrong with that as far as the numbers here i think this is what they want to do a little bit this is the type of confusion that gets outside of what the real issue here i'm a libertarian i'm for flat tax i'm for fair tax these strands all this tax stuff this as a real issue in your mind no no i think the real issue here is this just all becomes a distraction as to maybe i'm going to pay a little bit more maybe i will pay a little bit less i think more important is where the money's going that we pay and what what those goals are going to be met with those that amount of money i personally believe what we get into here is this becomes a distraction here we are we're all going to argue obviously middle has one meaning we look at the numbers whatever the numbers are that's the middle i mean if middle doesn't have a meaning it has no meaning at all but even us even as we say we keep up with this a lot of we're going to sit up here and argue about numbers and fractions and all this i think this becomes a distraction and i think this plays very well into the candidates hands that they can play with the numbers so much they can explain away anything in stead of what they're really going to do with the tax money just sort of whether you're going to pay more than your neighbor and because you want to comment on that and we'll

you're you're ready to jump are you here's what i said was private the belief that middle income values and middle income experience as can absolutely extend to the boundaries on either side but the reality is that the person who believes that two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year is what the average person experiences and how can they absolutely how can they honestly say that i know what policies are going to affect you and impact you in the way you need them to if you can't even fathom how many people are living far but underneath that income i mean you have no idea what their lives are like no idea the financial constraints they are under and i mean how do you leave didn't didn't romney i mean he was given the george stephanopoulos said you mean one hundred thousand dollars as median income which is twice what. median household income is. twice as much from what i was the way i interpret the conversation was he was being asked about tax cuts and how one of the tax cuts should go how one

should treat middle income middle class and he gives a very broad thing which. what if i was no no no the president sets middle income up to two hundred fifty which seems statistically a little while our president yes the documents never said that he talks about raising taxes not raising taxes on the middle class and he talks about raising taxes on people above two hundred fifty i could make right now he's very careful to distinguish between the two our president knows i mean he was the most paid off a student loans two years ago i mean he include the middle income and the numbers in which he's talking about the two different tax plans whereas mitt romney literally is saying that middle income is far away from where middle income actually is his and his mistake and millie comes not to if i think i was out of no there's no debate about i think this is like that moment when george herbert walker bush looked at the scanner in the supermarket and said wow this is really cool yes and you know they've been around for a decade because that's not what happened he was talking about something else and the new york times reporter misunderstood it and spread of

a year after walker bush yeah it wasn't like that at all go back and check the records the reports are completely misunderstood and generations of liberal as well and i'm not dying i am suggesting that this is the same as the mythology about george herbert walker bush about a. fifty thousand dollars mill here to wrap around here what more of tonight's big picture rubble right after the break.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.